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Life in General
Jun. 4th, 2006 10:09 pmI hope I burned a lot of calories yesterday because I've been really hungry and have, therefore, been eating more than usual. I feel pretty good, though. I went walking for about half an hour tonight. At least my legs weren't sore after canoeing yesterday!:-D The rest of my body is, though. Even my abdomen is sore--when I laugh, it hurts! LOL! Sorry if that's too much information.
Today, Sunday school with the first and second graders went much better. After a couple of weeks of trial and error (probably more error), I've discovered that it works best NOT to have them read. I have very little patience with people reading aloud in general and, let me tell you, first and second graders aren't better than the average college-aged person! So it's a better deal if I have them color while I read or talk. I'm a little weirded out that they're so easily entertained by coloring, but they seem to listen pretty well if they have something to do and coloring isn't so mentally engaging for them that they can't pay attention to what I'm saying. So it works quite well! I did pick up the Sunday school curriculum today, though, so that will be helpful (I hope) in coming up with ideas for the class. We've been playing Uno for half the class--that gives us time for about two rounds. They really like that and I can't really keep their attention for the whole hour. Teaching first and second grade Sunday school hasn't been that bad.:-D And today was promotion Sunday, so I got four new ones. LOL!
Okay, so back to canoeing...I'm a very athletically challenged person. The water was low, too. In fact, the water was so low that we probably shouldn't have been canoeing at all. The guy who rents the canoes, etc. offered to rent us kayaks instead, so we got seven kayaks and two canoes. Since I hadn't ever done this before, the canoe seemed like a good option. Thankfully, the girl I was with was quite light...and we didn't have to do nearly as much walking/dragging as we might have. Still, despite all my efforts (and hers), we wound up running into quite a few rocks and having to try many methods to get free of the rocks. Where possible, we avoided getting out. We used the paddles to push against the rocks or into the dirt to try to launch ourselves off the stuck spot. Where that failed, we attempted wiggling--which was actually quite effective several times. The alternative was to get out and, wearing slippers (which all you mainlanders like to call flip flops), drag the canoe through the very slippery, mossy rocks--which was where the water was usually rushing the fastest. I thought I'd be more hurt than I was, but I've only found one bruise on my shin. LOL! A couple of the girls who kayaked said they didn't even have to get out once. I was impressed.
The night before, we stayed at a beautiful cabin.
The cabin had two floors. The bottom one had a kitchen, a large dining area, two restrooms ("Cowgirl" and "Cowboy"), and a laundry room. Upstairs, there were two bedrooms (with three or three beds each) and a restroom. Everything was very nice. People have been disgusted with us for not "roughing it" when they hear of our accommodations.
We didn't leave here until close to seven, so we didn't arrive down there till about eight, when we ate dinner. After dinner, we played some interesting games. I neglected to get pictures of the first one, which involved water guns. One person wore a pie plate hat with a little tea candle taped on it--lit. The other person would squirt a water gun to try to extinguish the flame. Theoretically, we had teams and this was a competition...but it never turned out to be very fair or equal due to tea candle differences (one used and the other not or one being wetter than other) and eventually the whole thing deteriorated into a water gun fight.;-) Carrie kindly videotaped that, I believe...while dodging the streams of water that wound up coming from many directions--even though only two people were shooting them.:-D
Then we played a game involving drawing objects. One person held the object and had to describe it to the "draw-er" in terms of lines and inches.
This was very interesting. Eventually, identical objects were used to guarantee "fairness" (at least with the objects themselves, since the describers were not necessarily "equal"). This proved very interesting in the end as people were attempting to draw scissors and walkie talkies without knowing what they were (they had to guess--that was the point of the game).
Meredith and Michael arrived just as the fire was being prepared for s'mores.
The s'more-making didn't last long. Eventually, we began just talking and playing "Two Truths and a Lie" (I really had to dig into my past for that one--most of these people have known me for nine years, some of them rather well--LOL! I went to Ireland with most of them last year). We talked until two in the morning before heading to bed.
And then we ate breakfast and went canoeing the next day.
Today, Sunday school with the first and second graders went much better. After a couple of weeks of trial and error (probably more error), I've discovered that it works best NOT to have them read. I have very little patience with people reading aloud in general and, let me tell you, first and second graders aren't better than the average college-aged person! So it's a better deal if I have them color while I read or talk. I'm a little weirded out that they're so easily entertained by coloring, but they seem to listen pretty well if they have something to do and coloring isn't so mentally engaging for them that they can't pay attention to what I'm saying. So it works quite well! I did pick up the Sunday school curriculum today, though, so that will be helpful (I hope) in coming up with ideas for the class. We've been playing Uno for half the class--that gives us time for about two rounds. They really like that and I can't really keep their attention for the whole hour. Teaching first and second grade Sunday school hasn't been that bad.:-D And today was promotion Sunday, so I got four new ones. LOL!
Okay, so back to canoeing...I'm a very athletically challenged person. The water was low, too. In fact, the water was so low that we probably shouldn't have been canoeing at all. The guy who rents the canoes, etc. offered to rent us kayaks instead, so we got seven kayaks and two canoes. Since I hadn't ever done this before, the canoe seemed like a good option. Thankfully, the girl I was with was quite light...and we didn't have to do nearly as much walking/dragging as we might have. Still, despite all my efforts (and hers), we wound up running into quite a few rocks and having to try many methods to get free of the rocks. Where possible, we avoided getting out. We used the paddles to push against the rocks or into the dirt to try to launch ourselves off the stuck spot. Where that failed, we attempted wiggling--which was actually quite effective several times. The alternative was to get out and, wearing slippers (which all you mainlanders like to call flip flops), drag the canoe through the very slippery, mossy rocks--which was where the water was usually rushing the fastest. I thought I'd be more hurt than I was, but I've only found one bruise on my shin. LOL! A couple of the girls who kayaked said they didn't even have to get out once. I was impressed.
The night before, we stayed at a beautiful cabin.
The cabin had two floors. The bottom one had a kitchen, a large dining area, two restrooms ("Cowgirl" and "Cowboy"), and a laundry room. Upstairs, there were two bedrooms (with three or three beds each) and a restroom. Everything was very nice. People have been disgusted with us for not "roughing it" when they hear of our accommodations.
We didn't leave here until close to seven, so we didn't arrive down there till about eight, when we ate dinner. After dinner, we played some interesting games. I neglected to get pictures of the first one, which involved water guns. One person wore a pie plate hat with a little tea candle taped on it--lit. The other person would squirt a water gun to try to extinguish the flame. Theoretically, we had teams and this was a competition...but it never turned out to be very fair or equal due to tea candle differences (one used and the other not or one being wetter than other) and eventually the whole thing deteriorated into a water gun fight.;-) Carrie kindly videotaped that, I believe...while dodging the streams of water that wound up coming from many directions--even though only two people were shooting them.:-D
Then we played a game involving drawing objects. One person held the object and had to describe it to the "draw-er" in terms of lines and inches.
This was very interesting. Eventually, identical objects were used to guarantee "fairness" (at least with the objects themselves, since the describers were not necessarily "equal"). This proved very interesting in the end as people were attempting to draw scissors and walkie talkies without knowing what they were (they had to guess--that was the point of the game).
Meredith and Michael arrived just as the fire was being prepared for s'mores.
The s'more-making didn't last long. Eventually, we began just talking and playing "Two Truths and a Lie" (I really had to dig into my past for that one--most of these people have known me for nine years, some of them rather well--LOL! I went to Ireland with most of them last year). We talked until two in the morning before heading to bed.
And then we ate breakfast and went canoeing the next day.
